Hickory-Lenoir-Morganton, NC Retail & Consumer Trends 2026

Growth ranking

Fastest-growing tracked retail and consumer chains

Ranked by year-over-year growth of share of tracked local spend. Arrows show movement in the rankings since last year. Each dot in the chart is one tracked chain: bigger market position to the right, faster growth higher up, more tracked stores in a bigger dot. Colors match the store map below. Little Caesars and Murphy USA sit in the high-growth half.

# Chain YoY growth

Rank	Chain	Rank movement	YoY growth
1	L Little Caesars	▲4	+17.8%
2	M Murphy USA	▲2	+13.5%
3	W Waffle House	▲5	+12.4%
4	D Dollar Tree	▲4	+11.3%
5	O O'Reilly Auto Parts	▲3	+10.7%
6	D Dollar General	▲1	+9.8%
7	A AutoZone	▲5	+9.7%
8	L Lowes Foods	▲1	+7.0%
9	C Cook Out	▲2	+6.6%
10	L Lowe's Home Improvement	-	+5.5%
11	F Food Lion	-	+3.1%
12	E El Paso Mexican Restaurant	▲2	+3.0%
13	L LongHorn Steakhouse	▲2	+2.7%
14	W Walmart	-	+2.2%
15	G Great Clips	▲2	+1.5%